Alternative Peanut Butter Sandwiches When You’re Out of Jelly
Peanut butter and jelly is a sandwich for our time, but the fatigue of the sky is real and there are new and different foods out there – it’s one little way to shake things up, so to speak. (Plus, you may run out of jelly and jam. This happens, I’ve heard.) While my favorite combination of JIF and Strawberry Bonne Maman is flawless, there are other peanut butter sandwiches that are just as enjoyable and a little more adventurous.
Peanut butter and pickle
My very first published article was about this sandwich, so it has a special place in my heart (and origin story). Like American cheese preferences, the PB&P sentiment can serve as a detector for “primitiveness.” Are you immediately distracted by the unknown or “strange”? Do you let normal aesthetics and values dictate your plate? Whether you are good enough in food and taste, to get that sweet, buttery peanut butter, reminiscent of acidic vinegar sharpness and refreshing crunch canned cucumber? This sandwich answers all of these questions.
It is very good. I recommend toasting the (white) bread, letting it cool slightly (so it doesn’t melt the peanut butter), and using the most acidic pickles you can find. Brush both sides of the bread with peanut butter and blot the brine pieces with a paper towel before adding them to the sandwich.
Peanut butter and bacon
This is a good breakfast sandwich with no eggs in it. I have heard that there is an egg shortage in some parts of the country, but I have not heard the same about bacon (suspiciously). PB&B provides a pleasant combination of spicy and sweet and goes well with fresh fruits like banana or apple.
The richer and stronger bread can be fun here, and I recommend toasting it again. If you have really fancy peanut (or other seed) butter, your best bet is to swap out the bacon for prosciutto chips.
Flaffernatter
Marshmallow and peanut butter sandwiches are technically classified as “appetizers,” although they can certainly pass for dessert. I didn’t grow up eating them – I think they’re from New England – but the sweet and sweeter combination won me over later. You should use unroasted soft white bread, but you can microwave the two buttered sides for a few seconds before crushing them together. If you have Nutella, add it there too.
Peanut butter and potato chips
It looks more like a hot dream than a sandwich, but that doesn’t stop it from being delicious. Plain kettle-cooked super-salty chips work best with peanut butter, but a spicy kebab or sriracha also works surprisingly well. If you don’t have chips, try pretzels! Sprinkle with honey. Live a little.
Peanut butter and almost any fruit
Fruit is mostly raw jelly, so putting the chopped fresh product on top of your peanut butter sandwich is an obvious step. Even without bacon, an apple and a banana can make a good peanut butter sandwich, as can berries, pears, and some stone fruits, especially dried apricots. Whole grain bread seems like the right choice here, but whatever you have will do. These are unusual times, and bread is not an easy subject.
What’s the most unusual peanut butter sandwich you’ve ever eaten? Which pair was the tastiest? I was thinking about trying to add bain-marie to peanut butter and bacon, but we haven’t gotten to that yet. A Canadian friend of mine claims that “fried peanut butter and tomatoes” is a real sandwich that his mom made, but like many people in Canada, it seems to be made up.